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A confident national women football team, Harambee Starlets, left for Turkey early yesterday morning in time for the Turkish Women’s Cup which kicks off today.

The tournament will be played in Alanya City, some 363 kilometres from the Turkish capital Ankara.

Starlets have been camping in Nairobi and now have their eyes set on the international tournament which will serve as a build-up for the 2020 Women Cup of Nations against Tanzania in April.

Coach David Ouma had on Monday named the final squad for the eight-team tournament entrusting five debutants among them Chapa Dimba hotshot Jane Njeri and Eldoret Falcons defender Dorcas Shiveka.

“This tournament has come at an opportune time for me to gauge the players ahead of the upcoming qualifiers.

We had one week to brush through our style of play so I’m confident we will do well against top opposition,” said Ouma moments before the team boarded a flight at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.

Influential forward Mwanalima Adam, meanwhile, relished coming up against top opposition, pointing out that the team will be better prepared to face Tanzania in the AWCON qualifier.

“Coming up against top opposition is enough motivation for us to give a good account of ourselves in Turkey. We’ll give our best and hopefully we’ll take the form to our match against Tanzania,’’ said Adam.

Starlets have been pooled against Northern Ireland, Chile and Uzbekistan.